Small enterprises in Sweden Health and safety and the significance of intermediaries in preventive health and safety

arbete och hälsa | vetenskaplig skriftserie

isbn 91-7045-629-1 issn 0346-7821 http://www.niwl.se/

nr 2002:1

Small enterprises in Sweden

Health and safety and the significance of intermediaries in preventive health and safety

Ann-Beth Antonsson,

Lena Birgersdotter

and Sten Bornberger-Dankvardt

National Institute for Working Life

1. IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute 2. Örebro University Hospital,

Dep. of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

ARBETE OCH HÄLSA

Editor-in-chief: Staffan Marklund

Co-editors: Mikael Bergenheim, Anders Kjellberg, Birgitta Meding, Bo Melin, Gunnar Rosén and Ewa Wigaeus Tornqvist

© National Institut for Working Life & authors 2002 National Institute for Working Life

S-112 79 Stockholm Sweden

ISBN 91–7045–629–1 ISSN 0346–7821 http://www.niwl.se/

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Preface

This report is the Swedish part of the SALTSA B project, Health and safety in small enterprises in Europe: The significance and sustainability of the translator function of intermediaries in preventive health and safety. The aim of the entire project has been;

• To give an overview of health and safety in small enterprises in some countries within the European Union based on available information and literature. As a back- ground, the existing infrastructure relevant to health and safety in small enterprises is described. This report describes the situation in Sweden. Other reports have been written for Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

• To describe and to some extent also evaluate examples of intermediaries who have supported successful and sustainable improvement of health and safety in small enterprises. In this report, Swedish regional safety representatives have been chosen as one example and Growth Potential Objective 4 has been chosen as the other example.

• This Swedish report is also written to give an overview of the current situation in Sweden regarding small enterprises and health and safety. In an international perspective, comparisons can be made with the situation in other countries e.g.

regarding the prevalence of small enterprises in different sectors, their economic situation and the existing supportive infrastructure in terms of legislation, organi- sations and social security. The present status of health and safety as reflected in statistics is presented and discussed. Finally the intermediaries which have been and still are very important to health and safety in small enterprises are discussed both in relation to the extent of contacts they have with small enterprises as well as what kind of health and safety related issues they usually deal with in these contacts. The presentation is limited by the information available from publicly available sources.

Project leader for the SALTSA B project is Ph D David Walters, Southbank University in London. The SALTSA B programme is funded by the National Institute for Working Life. This report for which Ph D Ann-Beth Antonsson at the Swedish Environmental Research Institute has been the project leader is funded separately by the National Institute for Working Life.

Based on the national reports, a book describing small enterprises in Europe and the

role of intermediaries has been written by David Walters. This book, Health and Safety

in Small Enterprises. European Strategies for Managing Improvement was published in

2001 by SALTSA in the Series “Work and Society”, No 31.

Contents

Preface

1. Facts about small enterprises 1

1.1 Definitions of small enterprises 1

1.2 Number of small enterprises – time trends 1

1.3 Small enterprises and economy 4

1.4 Small enterprises in the global setting 4

1.5 In what sectors are small enterprises active? 5

1.6 How are small enterprises owned? 7

1.7 Employees in small enterprises 7

1.8 Which organisations are small enterprises attached to? 9

1.9 Support networks for small enterprises 10

1.10 How are changes in society affecting small enterprises? 12 2. Facts about health and safety in small enterprises 14

2.1 Hazards and risks in small enterprises 14

2.2 Health and safety regulations relevant to small enterprises 15

2.2.1 Safety representatives 15

2.2.2 Systematic work environment management 15

2.2.3 Occupational Health Services 16

2.2.4 Social insurance 16

2.2.5 The duty to leave information 17

2.3 Fatalities, injuries, diseases and absence 17

2.4 Cost of injuries, ill-health and absence 20

2.5 Other measures of health and safety 20

2.6 Small enterprises opinions about their health and safety 21 2.7 Health and safety information and training in small enterprises 21 2.8 Information sources used by small enterprises 21 3. Strategies on health and safety in small enterprises 23

3.1 Public strategies 23

3.2 The social partners strategies 24

4. The main actors and evaluation of their activities 26 4.1 The Swedish Work Environment Authority

and the Work Environment Inspectorate 26

4.1.1 The Work Environment Inspectorate 26

4.1.2 Evaluations of the Work Environment Inspectorate 28

4.1.3 Enforcement actions from authorities 29

4.1.4 Systematic work environment management 29

4.2 Occupational Health Services 29 4.2.1 Affiliation to Occupational Health Services 29

4.2.2 The development of OHS 30

4.2.3 Financing of OHS 30

4.2.4 Extent of OHS 31

4.2.5 Service provided by OHS 31

4.2.6 Evaluation of OHS 32

4.2.7 Small enterprises’ opinions on OHS 33

4.2.8 The Örebro model – support to OHS from an SSE Unit 35

4.3 The Swedish Worklife Fund, ALF 37

4.3.1 The Work Life Fund, 1990-1995 37

4.3.2 Evaluation of the Fund 38

4.4 Prevent 39

5. Experiences from two successful health and safety initiatives

in small enterprises 41

5.1 An overview of different approaches 41

5.2 Successful and sustainable 42

5.3 Regional Safety Representatives, RSR 43

5.3.1 Background to RSRs 43

5.3.2 The aim of RSR activities 44

5.3.3 The extent of RSR activities 45

5.3.4 Evaluation of RSR activities 46

5.3.5 Discussion 48

5.4 Growth Potential Objective 4, GPO4 50

5.4.1 Background to GPO4 50

5.4.2 What are they doing in GPO4 projects? 51

5.4.3 The extent of GPO4 activities 51

5.4.4 Evaluation of GPO4 activities 53

5.4.5 Discussion 55

6. Discussion 57

7. Conclusions 60

Sammanfattning 61

References 62

1. Facts about small enterprises

1.1 Definitions of small enterprises

In Sweden the most commonly used definition of small enterprises, when discus- sing health and safety, are enterprises with less than 50 employees. This is also the limit where enterprises are required to have a safety committee, which is a com- mittee of employers and employees representatives meeting at least four times a year to plan and follow the work regarding health and safety issues in the enter- prise (Arbetsmiljölagen chap. 6, § 8). The presence of a safety committee is supposed to affect the working environment positively and thus the absence of a safety committee contributes to the greater problems small enterprises are supposed to have with health and safety.

Other definitions of small enterprises are also used in Sweden. Small enter- prises have been defined as enterprises with less than 200 employee’s (Proposition 1977/78:40) including smaller enter-prises with less than 50 employees and

medium-sized ones with 50-200 employees.

In this report a limit of 50 is normally used. In some cases other limits are used and in these cases the limit is indicated within the text. As the trend in Sweden is towards downsizing and the division of enterprises into many smaller enterprises, it should be noted that in general when talking about small enterprises, the small enterprises that are part of a group or owned by holding enterprises are usually included.

1.2 Number of small enterprises – time trends

During the 1990s, the number of private small enterprises has increased steadily.

The largest increase has been in one-person-enterprises (Lundström et al. 1998).

In 1998 Sweden had 803 600 active private enterprises. 157 100 of these, were active in the agriculture sector. More than 99 per cent of the active private enter- prises had less than 200 employees. In 1998, excluding the agriculture sector 760 enterprises had more than 200 employees (Linder 1999).

During 1997 2.3 million people were working in the private sector in Sweden.

Of these, 1.5 million worked within enterprises with less than 200 employees.

Statistics from 1993, 1996 and 1998 on the number of private enterprises in Sweden are compiled in table 1.

In table 2, the development from 1984 to 1993 is described. In this table the

number of enterprises is given per million inhabitants and broken down by size.

Table 1. Number of private enterprises (including agriculture) and number of employees, excluding agriculture, broken down according to size for the years 1993 and 1996. Enterprises without employees mean enterprises with no employees except the owner. The numbers of employees include the owner (Johansson 1998, Linder 1999). In the figures for 1998 (Linder 1999) neither the agriculture sector nor share-holding enterprises that are publicly owned are included. SizeNumber of enterpr. 1993

Number of enterpr. 1996

Number of enterpr. 1998

Share of total 1993

Share of total 1996

Share of total 1998

Number of employees 1993 Number of employees 1996 Number of employees 1998

Share of total 1993

Share of total 1996

Share of total 1998 No employeesa)254 899313 110458 34159.862.371,3254 899313 110366 09512.012.417,0 1-9146 585161 07834.432.1401 577439 19918.917.4 10-1913 12914 769176 231 3.12.927,4 175 293197 059662 724 8.37.830,7 20-497 2798 6167 8961.71.71,2216 287256 675237 39810.210.211,0 Sum, small enterprises421 892497 573642 55899.199.199,91 048 0561 206 0431 266 21749.347.958,7 50-992 1622 5810.50.5147 815177 4307.07.0 100-1991 0111 2073 2400.20.20,5139 737166 225287 5156.66.613,3 Sum, small and medium-sized enterprises

425 065501 361645 79899.899.81 335 6081 549 6981 553 73262.961.572,0 200-4996177344930.10.1185 589216 353147 2888.78.66,8 500-3674322690.10.1601 067752 183456 40028.329.921,2 Sum, large enterprises9841 1667620.20.2786 656968 536603 68837.138.528,0 Total426 049502 527646 560100.0100.02 122 2642 518 2342 157 420100.0100.0100,0 a) Enterprises with no employees are enterprises where only the owner works. Some of these enterprises do not employ the owner on a full-time basis. As the table shows, these enterprises constitute the majority of enterprises.

Table 2. Number of enterprises in the entire private sector per million inhabitants and broken down according to size. Numbers are given for 1984 and 1993. Numbers are corrected for enterprises belonging to groups. Note that enterprises with 0-1 employee are excluded (Johansson 1998).

Entire private sector Manufacturing industry

Number of employees in enterprises

1984 1993 Change

%

I984 1993 Change

%

2-4 5705 7232 27 683 741 8

5-9 2574 2933 14 450 439 -2

10-19 1340 1360 1 321 246 -23

20-49 705 696 -1 2l9 l71 -22

50-99 210 191 -9 78 58 -26

100-199 92 85 -8 39 26 -33

200-499 54 54 0 22 23 5

500+ 39 35 -10 19 16 -16

When interpreting the numbers in tables 1 and 2, one has to keep in mind that the total economy in Sweden has gone through rapid changes during the 1990s. In 1990 a recession in the Swedish economy started, which initiated vast changes in Swedish enterprises. Unemployment rose from about two per cent to about eight (Statistics Sweden 1999) (or 11-12 per cent: Numbers vary depending on what they reflect and especially depending on whether people in various kinds of labour market policy programmes are included or not). The recession was quite severe during the first years of the 1990s, but from about 1994 onwards the Swedish economy has developed quite well and the unemployment rate was around six per cent in the beginning of 2000 (ibid.) and had decreased to four per cent in

November 2000.

During the recession, many large enterprises downsized and divided their activities into several smaller enterprises within a group. Thus the numbers above also reflect this development amongst large Swedish enterprises. Additionally, many people and activities were out-sourced and many of those that were out- sourced started their own enterprises. In many cases they worked part time as consultants for their former employers. This may, to some extent, explain the increase in the number of enterprises without employees in table 1.

When it comes to the creation of new jobs, the newly established small

enterprises created about 65 000 new jobs annually between 1990-93 and an

additional 118 000 were created by expanding existing establishments. This

corresponds to 75 per cent and 64 per cent respectively of all jobs created in these

ways during a period when about half of all privately employed people were

employed in small enterprises. About 75 per cent of all jobs that disappeared due

to the closure of establishments disappeared from the small enterprise sector. 52

per cent of the reduction took place in the small enterprise sector. As a whole, 67

per cent of the job increases took place in the small enterprise sector and only 30

per cent of the job losses took place amongst small enterprises. This trend

increased as the economy improved during 1994 (Persson 1997). Analyses have

shown that for the small enterprise sector, the recession struck later and less

severely and when the economy improved, jobs were created earlier and to a

larger extent than in large enterprises (ibid.).

Table 3 shows the number of new shareholder owned enterprises and the number of such enterprises that were wound up during the period between 1992 and 1998.

Table 3. New and wound up shareholder’s enterprises between 1992 and 1998.

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

Enterprises regis- tered during the year

19 006 19 567 22 849 22 230 9 215 13 162 13 430

Enterprises wound up during the year

9 151 15 870 18 199 16 791 15 225 28 563 24 706

Registered enter- prises in existence at end of year:

in operation winding up

290 852 40 147

294 906 43 268

299 801 46 112

307 991 41 616

300 900 38 287

268 374 21 335

270 920 6 299

Even if the numbers in table 3 relate to the total number of share holder’s enter- prises, there is no doubt that the vast majority of registered and wound up enter- prises are small ones.

1.3 Small enterprises and economy

The figures from 1996 show that small and medium-sized enterprises (those with less than 250 employees) accounted for about half of the employment in the total business sector and 37 per cent of the value added (gross profit before deprecia- tion plus labour costs). Additionally they accounted for 32 per cent of the invest- ments in tangible assets. Only three per cent of the total exports came from these enterprises and only one per cent of research costs (Statistics Sweden 1996).

A comparison of international and Swedish enterprises active in Sweden, shows that of the Swedish enterprises, the small ones (1-49 employees) invested most.

The smallest enterprises (0 employees) were the most profitable ones.

1.4 Small enterprises in the global setting

In table 4, the number of Swedish and international enterprises, of various sizes,

active within Sweden, are accounted for. Even though there seem to be some

uncertainties in the figures, it seems obvious that the vast majority of small enter-

prises (1-49 employees) are purely Swedish. There seem to be about twice as

many small Swedish enterprises having affiliated foreign enterprises as there are

small foreign enterprises affiliating with Swedish companies. When it comes to

large enterprises, the vast majority of employees work in enterprises with some

kind of international affiliation.

Table 4. Swedish enterprises with affiliated enterprises internationally. The table is an extract from several tables in (Statistics Sweden 1996).

Number of employees

0 1-49 50-249 250 -

Swedish enterprises with foreign affiliated enterprises

1 164 3 294 1 027 356

Number of employees 0 48 011 108 036 461 154

Share of total employees in enterprises of same size

- 5,5 12,3 52,4

Swedish enterprises which are affiliated to international enterprises

421 1 790 645 215

Number of employees 0 27 912 71 799 163 584

Share of total employees in enterprises of same size

0 3,2 8,2 18,6

Share of total employees in enterprises with Swedish/international affiliation

- 8,7 20,5 71,0

Home market enterprises 88 742 165 214 1 437 59

Number of employees 0 710 034 122 830 19 449

Share of total employees in SMEs/large enterpr. - 69,7 12,1 1,9

98 per cent of exporting enterprises have less than 200 employees and these enter- prises account for about 17 per cent of the exported value from Sweden. Even if Sweden has many small enterprises exporting products and services, the export value is greatest amongst the large enterprises.

1.5 In what sectors are small enterprises active?

In table 5, the number of enterprises of different sizes in different sectors is accounted for (Statistics Sweden 1999). It is obvious that even though all sectors contain small enterprises, there are some sectors that are heavily dominated by small enterprises. Such sectors are, for example, agriculture, fishing, wholesale and retail trade and repair and hotels and restaurants. In some sectors there are many large or very large enterprises but also a lot of small ones, e.g. in construc- tion, manufacturing and transport, storage and communication, real estate, renting and business activities.

In 1997 about 80 per cent of the enterprises with less than 200 employees belonged to the service sector and they employed about 853 000 people, which is 82 per cent of all employees in the service sector. 57 per cent of all workers in the service sector worked in enterprises with up to 19 employees, which means that the service sector is a sector heavily dominated by small enterprises.

* Presentation on the homepage of Företagarnas Riksorganisation, http://www.fr.se.

Table 5. Enterprises broken down according to economic activity and size according to Swedish NACE-codes, 1998 (Statistics Sweden 1999). Economic activitySize group (number of employees)Total 012-45-910-1920-4950-99100-199200-499500-enterprisesemployees A. Agriculture, hunting and forestry146 6994 5193 54689027492213104156 05833 385 B. Fishing9705963237000001 122459 C. Mining and quarrying2936510477301757226029 117 D. Manufacturing26 7564 4987 2564 5993 0902 22692147931322550 363712 602 E. Electricity, water and gas supply73250585370106352817101 15926 311 F. Construction29 3766 7408 0133 4341 77776015042232750 342180 084 G. Wholesale and retail trade, repair71 41512 95019 4348 8644 1102 05953020811352119 735422 930 H. Hotels and restaurants11 5032 3453 3001 6938154861032818920 30079 073 I. Transport, storage and communications16 9415 0035 2982 3571 21857417070464231 719239 524 J. Financial intermediation3 045783719248155110674722175 21381 941 K. Real estate, renting and business activities114 15520 42815 0104 8592 3561 33843321312561158 978360 071 L. Public administration and defence, compulsory social security

382634521303016426341733137 308 M. Education4 539641912553335254822920277 392139 745 N. Health and social work8 8231 7472 8821 29756232697444629016 114934 003 O. Other community, social and personal service activities36 7897 4305 9412 3391 27569620492391154 816126 808 P. Private households with employed persons540000000094 Q. Extra-territorial organi- sations and bodies348111000004527 X. Not classifiable by economic activity135 182420331010000135 637553 Total607 63967 75372 61531 30916 1059 0752 8341 332857818810 3373 483 945 Share of all enterprises %75,08,49,03,92,01,10,30,20,10,1100

1.6 How are small enterprises owned?

The proportion of enterprises owned by shareholders increases with the number of employees. In 1996 71 per cent of enterprises with 1-4 employees were share- holder’s enterprises (NUTEK 1996). The share of enterprises which are family- owned decreases with an increasing number of employees. In 1994 80 per cent of enterprises in the manufacturing industry with 0-9 employees were family-owned (NUTEK 1994).

One interesting aspect of ownership is the reason for small enterprises being established. In Sweden:

• Many enterprises are established with the aim not to grow and employ more people, while other enterprises are established strategically on a market and grow very rapidly.

• The main factors that stop small enterprises from growing are factors as com- petition, market, lack of time, lack of risk capital and deficiencies in marketing (SCB 1996).

The impression is that during the recession in the Swedish economy, many small enterprises were established as people were out-sourced and asked to establish their own enterprises in order to act as subcontractors to their former employers.

These enterprises were established to provide work and a livelihood to their owners as a substitute for employment.

The share of private enterprises that are affiliated to a larger organisation/group of enterprises has increased, from six per cent in 1979 to 14 in 1998 for small enterprises (<50 employees) and from 58 per cent to 73 for large and medium sized enterprises (>50 employees). There are big differences between trades. In some sectors, enterprises with no affiliation form the largest category, e.g. in agriculture and hunting, education, forestry and recreational, cultural and sporting activities.

1.7 Employees in small enterprises

74 per cent of white-collar workers and 85 of blue-collar workers are organised within unions (Kjellberg 1997). Employees in small enterprises are organised in labour unions to quite a high degree, even though the degree of membership is probably generally a bit lower in small enterprises than in large ones. About 50 per cent of employees in enterprises with 1-9 employees and about 75 per cent in enterprises with 11-50 employees are members of trade unions (Frick & Walters 1998). Additionally, there are some sectors where employees tend to be less organised, e.g. within the IT-sector, though the number of employees organised in trade unions now have increased in the IT-sector due to increased unemployment.

* Statistics especially compiled for this report by Lars Sundbom and Tor Larsson, SAMU, Uppsala.

Figure 1. Percentage of enterprises, of different sizes, affiliated to a larger organisation/

group of enterprises. Private sector only (Source: See previous footnote).

Figure 1 shows that the share of enterprises with affiliation has steadily increased between 1979 and 1998 for companies with less than 100 employees. The most marked increase has taken part in the group with 10-19 employees, where the share of enterprises with affiliation has doubled.

Two studies from the 1970s indicate that employees are less involved in work regarding the working environment in small enterprises than in large ones.

Employees, including safety representatives, are less aware of occupational health and safety risks. Additionally they are reluctant to put demands regarding their working environment on the managers that they are dependent on (SOU 1972:86, Kronlund et al. 1978). Of course this situation may have changed since the 1970s.

In a recent study (Johansson 1998), however, there are signs that many employees are quite passive regarding their working environment. This is explained by the culture within many small enterprises, which is quite authoritarian.

During the 1980s and 1990s, a strong trend in research regarding the working environment has been to focus on the organisation of work. This has resulted in many projects where the organisation of work has been changed in enterprises, employees have got more responsibilities, more education and a more varied pattern of work. The change in the organisation of work has taken place in small, medium-sized and large enterprises. The overall impression however is that this change has gone further in large enterprises than in small ones. There are, how- ever, many small enterprises that have changed their way of organising their work. Some of them are described in a thesis (Johansson 1998), where a positive correlation is found between a modern organisation of work including workers participation and a good working environment.

Enterprises with affiliation

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

1-4 5-10 10-19 20-49 50-99 100- 199

200- 499

500- Size of enterprises

Share with affilation

1979 1988 1998

One interesting aspect of small enterprises is the relation between large and small enterprises. Sweden has many large enterprises that tend to be very domina- ting in their respective areas. These large enterprises are not considered to be a problem as such. However, they have not been very active in supporting local small enterprises and have instead tended to hamper the development of networks for small enterprises rather than support them (Berggren et al. 1998).

1.8 Which organisations are small enterprises attached to?

Sweden is a country with many organisations and a large proportion of enterprises and employees are organised in one of various ways.

The dominating organisation for private enterprises is the Swedish Employers Federation (Svenska Arbetsgivareföreningen), SAF, which organises almost all large private enterprises in Sweden and many small ones. SAF is an employer’s organisation that deals with many different aspects of business and market rela- tions. The 39 sectoral organisations within SAF negotiate on matters such as salaries and employment conditions.

In table 6, the number of Swedish enterprises organised in SAF are accounted for in relation to the number of employees in the enterprises and the total number of employees in all the enterprises within each size category.

Table 6. Number of Swedish enterprises of different sizes which are members of SAF (Source: Presentation on the homepage of Swedish Employers Federation

http://www.saf.se/detta/bildpresentation_12htm).

Number of employees Number of enterprises that are members of SAF

Total number of employees in the SAF-enterprises

– 10 28 000 100 000

11 – 200 12 000 450 000

201 - 890 675 000

SAF organises between 15 and 20 per cent of the smallest enterprises (enterprises with less than ten employees). Their negotiations with the employee’s organisa- tions have a much wider impact, as many enterprises, especially small ones, have so called affiliated collective agreements which usually means that the enterprises apply the same agreements as other enterprises that are members of SAF.

Another large organisation which organises many small enterprises is The Federation of Private Enterprises (Företagarnas Riksorganisation), FR. FR has 60 000 owners of small and medium sized private enterprises as members. FR also encompasses an additional 30 000 small businesses through 32 affiliated trade associations, e.g. hairdressers. FR has 18 regional offices and is organised in 25 district organisations, 328 local organisations and 32 trade organisations. FR is an organisation that works on the political arena and lobbies on various topics concerning enterprises. It also acts as a forum for enterprises through its local organisations.

A third organisation is the Swedish Industry Association, (Svensk Industri- förening), Sinf. It is a national organisation for small and medium-sized indus-

* Presentation on the homepage of Företagarnas Riksorganisation, http://www.fr.se.

tries. Sinf organises twenty different trade associations. Most of the 1 800 members are active in the sectors of engineering, plastics, electronics, food producing and textiles. Sinf is growing in new sectors such as IT, environment and recycling. Sinf has a special interest in subcontracting industries. Sinf’s main services are in the field of business services and commercial policy, with an emphasis on information, assistance and advice on legal and financial matters.

Another sector is non-profit organisations, e.g. sports clubs of which many in fact have employees. About 1 420 are members of Employer’s Alliance (Arbets- givaralliansen), and about 580 are members in the Swedish Employer’s Associ- ation for Non-profit Organisations (Arbetsgivarförbundet för ideella organisatio- ner), Idea, which is a part of the Swedish Federation of Trade and Service, a sectoral organisation within SAF. This sector is not discussed further within this report.

Regionally and locally, there are also organisations for enterprises. The Swe- dish Employers Federation (SAF) has a regional organisation subdivided into 19 regions. The purpose of the regional organisation is to provide local information, opinion forming, service and guidance. The regional organisations also arrange meeting places to allow enterprises to exchange experience and initiate dialogues.

The Federation of Private Enterprises also has regional and local organisations, providing information and arranging various kinds of activities and meetings for their members. In some regions there are trade organisations, arranging activities for particular trades.

Amongst these organisations, SAF is noticeable for its activity in the field of working environment, supporting their members in various ways concerning OHS. There are also several ombudsmen, both within SAF’s central organisation and within most of SAF’s 39 sectoral organisations, that work part or full-time with working environment related issues. The Federation of Private Enterprises, the Swedish Employer’s Association for Non-profit Organisations and the Em- ployer’s Alliance are also involved in issues to do with the working environment on a regular basis.

In addition to this, there are many other local organisations and networks for small enterprises or owners of small enterprises. See section 1.14.

1.9 Support networks for small enterprises

Some of the local networks for small enterprises are related to the national organi- sations that organise enterprises and their local or regional organisations. This has been accounted for above (see section 1.5).

Several different surveys have studied which contacts are important to small enterprises. A survey in which 381 enterprises in northern Sweden gave their opinions on several topics, showed, not surprisingly, that more than 90 per cent had used their clients often or very often as information sources, 76 per cent used newspapers, 67 colleagues, 50 intermediaries, 36 exhibitions and 24 seminars as information sources (Alström & Höglund 1995).

Other networks relevant to small enterprises are the ALMI Group (ALMI

Företagspartner), which is an organisation owned jointly by government and

county councils. ALMI is divided into 22 regional enterprises with offices in 40

cities, in order to facilitate contact with local enterprises. ALMI’s mission is to stimulate growth and employment in small and medium-sized enterprises. ALMI offers loans to SMEs that can grow and want to grow. ALMI also provides busi- ness information, business-development programmes and consultative services.

ALMI should not compete with existing local commercial services. ALMI meets approximately 100 000 SMEs and potential SMEs each year. 24 000 of these become involved in extensive development programs. ALMI is mainly concerned with business development. During the last decade, effort has been put into management systems for quality and environment. In some cases working

environment aspects have been included in these activities and programmes have started to integrate management systems with the Swedish compulsory systematic work environment management, which in fact is a very simple form of manage- ment system. There have also been some attempts with projects where ALMI should provide support regarding OHS to SMEs (Lindström 1984), but these attempts seem to have been neither successful nor sustainable.

There are few studies on the extent of networking among small enterprises.

Active participants in the network decide network activities, not a central body.

As a consequence it is difficult to give a general description of networks and if and how they support health and safety interventions.

Good relations and trust among the participants are requirements for a network to “stay alive”. It is necessary to replace competition with co-operation.

There are many different kinds of networks among small Swedish enterprises.

Some of the networks are formed as regional or local organisations belonging to a national organisation such as the Federation of Private Enterprises. Other net- works are more of a meeting arena where, very often, owners and managers of small enterprises take part, such as Rotary Club and Lions. There are also many formal and informal local networks active in different ways. Locally there might, for example, be organisations for small industries, arranging regular meetings and discussing topics of common interest. There are also more informal networks, which might be of great importance and which are mainly based on personal relations and common interests. Such networks may be used where someone finds there to be a need.

In one Swedish region networks are considered more elaborate than in other regions. In parts of Småland, networking is seen as a way of working together with other enterprises in the same region in order to keep as much work as is possible within the region and improve the competence and development paths within the region.

There are also some rather new networks being built up based on the internet as

the main method of communication. The largest internet-project in Sweden with a

focus on increasing the competitiveness of SMEs is Smelink. The idea of Smelink

is to provide tailored, strategic information and to build a platform for enterprises

to find new partners and business opportunities. Smelink was started in 1996

based on discussions within private enterprise in the city of Jönköping, with

connections to the University and a private foundation, Knut & Alice Wallenberg

Foundation. Smelink also contains information on working environment as part of

the information on environmental management systems.

One of the rare studies on SMEs and networks examined three electronic net- works in Gotland. The focus was on how networks are formed, on their develop- ment and how to sustain networking, and what demands there are on and from those participating in networks. The study also looked into how the work situation and role of small entrepreneurs was affected by co-operation within the network.

The study shows that co-operation in networks gives opportunities for mutual use of resources and the sharing of common cost e.g. in marketing. Mutual exchange of experience improves competence within the enterprises in the network. The network offers advantages compared to acting on your own as a small enterprise, for example because of better external confidence and because larger business actions can be achieved (Brulin 1998).

1.10 How are changes in society affecting small enterprises?

During the last decade, Swedish society has changed a lot. The boom at the end of the 1980s was replaced by a recession with far reaching effects on working life.

At the end of the 1990s the Swedish economy is growing quite strongly. This growth is partly due to the restructuring of enterprises which took place in the beginning of the 1990s. This restructuring contained several elements which also effect small enterprises.

Some figures can be used to illustrate the change (Persson 1997). From 1990- 93, the number of employees decreased by about 500 000. At the same time, there was hardly any decrease at all in the number of establishments. The largest reduc- tion in jobs took place in the manufacturing industry (-187 000), the public sector (-145 000) and trade (-88 000). Despite the deep recession, employment increased in some sectors, including education, health care, engineering enterprises and other knowledge based enterprises. In the private sector, employment decreased mainly in Swedish-owned large enterprises. Establishments within small enter- prises increased their share of total employment from 48 to 52 per cent, which is a remarkable structural shift. After 1994, as the economy has improved, small enter- prises have continued to increase their share of employment in the public sector (ibid.).

Partly due to outsourcing, the number of small enterprises has grown. Many small enterprises give service or are suppliers to larger enterprises. In Sweden for example the car industry is quite strong with many suppliers. The car industry also acts as a strong and competent buyer, which puts demands on small enterprises and to some extent also helps them to develop their suppliers. It has been argued that large enterprises support their suppliers too little, which hampers small indus- try development (Berggren et al. 1998). The car industry is probably a very impor- tant driving force for small enterprises’ work with management systems for

quality and environment (ISO 9000 and 14 001). The use of these kinds of management system has also spread among Many small enterprises have imple- mented such management systems during the 1990s (Antonsson 2000).

A strong and visible trend is that the use of management systems has increased,

along with the number of different types of management system increasing. A

notable trend is that many sectors, including sectors with mainly small enterprises

as members, are developing systems of their own for quality and environmental

management (Mårtensson 2000). There is an increasing interest in integrating working environment considerations into other management systems, even though there is still a lack in experience as to which methods for integration are success- ful and which are not (Antonsson 2000).

Downsizing has lead to lean organisations and sometimes what has been called anorexic organisations. The restructuring has probably hit the largest enterprises hardest, but has also affected the smaller ones, for example the car industry has put demands on many of their suppliers to reduce costs by a certain percentage per annum. Additionally, the car industry in particular has begun to reduce their number of suppliers, which leads to the creation of supply chains, where one supplier takes a broader responsibility and acts as a main supplier with many sub- suppliers, which formerly were direct suppliers to the car industry.

During the 1980s and 1990s, franchising has increased and today there are many small enterprises that are parts of larger chains with a more or less defined concept. Franchising in Sweden shows slightly different characteristics than franchising in, for example, the USA. In Sweden there are more horizontal contacts (between enterprises on the same production level), which facilitate co- operation between enterprises. In the USA the contacts are mainly vertical – between the mother enterprise and franchisers with few, if any, horizontal con- tacts.

As franchising is growing and the franchisers are enterprises of their own, the number of small franchisers is growing. The franchisers are sometimes enti- rely new enterprises, built up around a specific concept. Existing enterprises are sometimes remodelled into franchises to create a stronger link to the enterprise whose products they are selling.

A general trend in Sweden during the first half of the 1990s is that unemploy- ment has increased. This has lead to a marked decrease in working environment activity and interest shown in OHS both in society in general and within many enterprises. This is also true for many small enterprises. In addition to this the trend towards lean organisations has lead to an increase in overload at work and people suffering from burn out syndromes. So far, no research relating burn out syndrome to the size of the enterprise is available, but the problem probably exists amongst small enterprises too.

Within the field of working environment, a very noticeable trend is that the focus has continued to change, during the 1990s, from physical problems to organisational and psycho-social problems. This holds true for small enterprises.

This change of focus does not mean that all physical working environment prob- lems are solved, but rather that they are not given as much attention as they were earlier on.

* Personal communication with Bengt-Åke Wennberg, Samarbetsdynamik AB, Onsala, dec 1999.

2. Facts about health and safety in small enterprises

2.1 Hazards and risks in small enterprises

It is usually argued that the nature of risks depends more on the type of activity in the enterprise than the size. Basically this is true, at least for the physical aspects of the working environment. The use of machines, tools and chemical substances leads to similar risks, regardless of the size of the enterprise. Analysing the situa- tion more thoroughly will indicate that there probably are some differences related to size (Antonsson 1997).

Analysis of the reported rate of work-related accidents and diseases in 1992 (SWEA & Statistics Sweden 1993), shows that cleaners in large enterprises reported work-related accidents and diseases twice as often as cleaners in small enterprises. A public investigation in 1993 stated that “this can hardly be right”

(SOU 1993:8113). There are reasons to believe that this depends more on under- reporting from small enterprises than real differences in their working environ- ment (SOU 1990:49, Bengtsson 1995).

The regular surveys of the Swedish labour force, made by Statistics Sweden, indicate that there are only minor differences between enterprises depending on size (1-49 employees, compared to 50-499 and more than 500 employees). It is not possible to decide whether these differences depend on differences in repor- ting work-related injuries between large and small enterprises or real differences in injuries between large and small enterprises.

The differences between trades are many times larger than the differences due to the size of the enterprises. There are significant differences in illness due to differences in working environment load (Frick 1996). Trades dominated by small enterprises, for example shops, have a very low frequency of work-related injuries and diseases and enterprises working with wooden products, products based on soil and stone, food products and beverages, agriculture and construction, have very high frequencies.

One characteristic of small enterprises is that work often varies a lot. A few people work and manage to do (almost) all the things that have to be done. This means that very often each person has many different work tasks. The exposure can thus be said to vary a lot, depending on which task is currently being carried out. In larger enterprises, work might be more monotonous due to a more Taylor- istic or specialised organisation of work. Additionally, exposures may be a lot higher in small enterprises, since safeguards and other control measures tend not to be very elaborate, since each task takes a short time. Thus extensive precautions are often not considered necessary. The conclusion is that compared to large enterprises, small enterprises probably have higher exposures but for shorter times (Antonsson 1997). This hypothesis has, however, not yet been evaluated or veri- fied.

Frick showed in 1979 that small independent enterprises worked in a less syste-

matic and preventive way with their working environment than small establish-

ments that were part of a larger private or public organisation. In the latter case, the small establishments had various types of support, e.g. from policies, staff managers and safety committees (Frick 1979). Nise showed a similar result in 1995, where the risk of harmful exposure to chemicals was significantly higher in independent small enterprises than other small establishments (Nise et al. 1995).

2.2 Health and safety regulations relevant to small enterprises

2.2.1 Safety representatives

All enterprises with five or more employees should have a safety representative.

Safety representatives are appointed by the trade unions or by the workers. Safety representatives shall take part in the work regarding health and safety at the work- place and have authorities according to that, e.g. to get information, take part in courses regarding health and safety on time paid by the employer and to stop haz- ardous work. Not all enterprises that should have safety representatives have, in fact, got them. There are, however, no figures relating the existence of safety representatives to the size of the enterprise.

In a recent study on safety representatives, it is estimated that about 21 000 enterprises have safety representatives, compared to about 107 500 enterprises with more than five employees that should have safety representatives (Arbets- tagarkonsult AB 2000). Accordingly here are safety representatives in only 20 per cent of the companies that are required to have safety representatives. It is obvious that safety representatives are more often missing in small enterprises than in large ones, even though no studies have been made to show this.

2.2.2 Systematic work environment management

Swedish legislation does not discriminate between enterprises based on their size.

In general the same legislation applies to all enterprises regardless of how large they are. However there is one instance where it is obvious that the legislation is interpreted differently for small enterprises – the Swedish legislation on syste- matic work environment management, SWEM.

The regulation on SWEM, formerly named “internal control” is in force since January 1 1993. The regulation requires that the employer works systematically with the working environment in the enterprise. The regulation requires action related to the work environment in the company. The action resembles a simple management system, with e.g. work environment policy, identification of risks, action plans, follow-up of accidents and near-accidents and follow up of the work according to SWEM.

One of the final paragraphs in the regulation states that enterprises have to do

“what is needed, depending on size, occupational hazards…” In practice, this means that the Work Environment Inspectorate normally accept much simpler systematic work environment management in small enterprises than in larger ones.

Even though all enterprises have to have systematic work environment manage-

ment, more than 50 per cent of enterprises with less than 50 employees have not

yet started to work with it (Statistics Sweden 1996).

2.2.3 Occupational Health Services

Legislation on the prevention of disease and accidents at work has existed in Swe- den since the 19

century. The present Work Environment Act (WEA) dates from 1978. A new provision was added to the WEA from 1986, which stated that “if the working conditions so require, employers are to organise Occupational Health Services (OHS) to the extent which the activities demand”. The provision enabled the regional Work Environment Inspectorate to issue an employer with an injunc- tion to affiliate his employees to Occupational Health Services in certain specific cases.

From the 1st of January 2000 there came into effect changes in the WEA that stress even more the demand on employers to organise OHS, whilst still not making it mandatory. A clear definition is added of what areas of expertise OHS must have.

The ILO Occupational Health Services Convention (No. 161) defines “occupa- tional health services” as services entrusted with essentially preventive functions and responsible for advising the employer, the workers and their representatives in the undertaking on the requirements for establishing and maintaining a safe and healthy working environment which will facilitate optimal physical and mental health in relation to work and the adaptation of work to the capabilities of workers in the light of their state of physical and mental health.

In the Swedish Work Environment Act (Chapter 3, Section 2b) a definition is added as worded 1

January 2001:

”By occupational health services is meant an independent expert resource in the domains of the working environment and rehabilitation. Occupational health services shall in particular work for the prevention and elimination of health risks at workplaces, and shall have the competence to identify and describe connections between the working environment, organisation, productivity and health”.

2.2.4 Social insurance

Two factors in Swedish social insurance are related to health and safety: Rehabili- tation and the employer’s obligation to pay salaries for the first period of sick leave.

According to Swedish law, employers are obligated to provide work related rehabilitation for employees, if relevant, after

• four weeks of sick leave,

• six incidences or more of sick leave during one year,

• if an employee asks for/demands rehabilitation.

The employer is responsible for measures undertaken at the enterprise, including changes in work tools, equipment, workplace layout and the organisation of work.

* Rantanen, J and Fedotov, I. Standards, principles and approaches in occupational health services, http://www.ilo.org/public/english/support/publ/encyc/contents.htm

** The Work Environment Act - with commentary as worded on 1st January 2001 http://www.av.se/english/legislation/chapter3.shtm

The rehabilitation may be supported by medical staff and often occupational health services are involved.

The social insurance system in Sweden includes compensation during sick leave. However since 1992, the employer has to pay a reduced salary (80 per cent but not more than a maximum level) to employees on sick leave during the first fourteen days. Since 1993 the first day of sick leave is not paid for with two exceptions. If the next period of sick leave starts within five days after the pre- vious one and after ten sick leaves during one year, the first day will be paid for.

It has been argued that this can become a heavy burden for small enterprises, if they employ people with or who develop some kind of chronic disease, causing a lot of sick leave. One argument for the increased responsibility of the employer is that this situation will make enterprises more aware of and concerned about how the working environment will affect the health and wellbeing of their employees.

Thus the period was extended to four weeks during 1997 to April 1998, when it was changed once again and is, at the moment, 14 days. There is an option for small companies with a wage sum equal to about 20 employees to take out an insurance against high costs for the company-paid compensation during sick leave.

There have been discussions in Sweden regarding differentiated dues for social insurance to motivate enterprises to improve their working environment in order to reduce their dues. Until now, it has not been possible to develop such a system and get a broad acceptance for it. Rehabilitation is continuously being investigated and discussed. One of the main problems is related to small enterprises. How should the working environment status in small enterprises be judged, in order to provide a firm basis for a fair due towards social insurance?

2.2.5 The duty to leave information

All enterprises have to leave information to the authorities on various topics. This duty has often been discussed in terms of it being a heavy burden especially to small enterprises.

Focus in this discussion is mainly on other topics than occupa- tional health and safety. The duty to leave information includes statistics on sick- leave per employee, which is reported to the Social Insurance Office. The em- ployer is obliged to pay a salary during the first two weeks. After that the Social Insurance Office pay compensation based on salary. The employee only reports sick-leave to the employer. Additionally the employer has to report all work- related accidents and diseases to the Social Insurance Office. It has been argued that this has lead to under-reporting of work-related accidents and diseases especially amongst small enterprises.

2.3 Fatalities, injuries, diseases and absence

There are several different information sources that reflect different aspects of the outcome of a poor working environment.

* Different articles and other material on the homepage of Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, www.svensktnaringsliv.se

Primarily, there are the injuries, fatalities and diseases which are accepted as clearly work-related which give the right to compensation for loss of income.

Today statistics that relate the outcome of these injuries, fatalities and diseases to the size of the enterprise is not available. It is however possible to use the avail- able statistics to relate the number of fatalities or work-related accidents and diseases, to wage sum for the enterprise (or that part of enterprise with its own insurance number). The wage sum is a reflection of the size of the enterprise. This has never been done.

Secondly, there are the reported injuries, fatalities and diseases, which in some cases are clearly related to the working environment and in some cases less clearly related. These reported injuries, fatalities and diseases are compiled within the ISA-statistics from the Swedish Work Environment Authority and Statistics Sweden. The statistics are based on reports to the Social Insurance Office from individuals (when sick leave exceeds 14 days) and enterprises (for shorter sick- leave). As the basis for these statistics are reports, under- and possibly over reporting will affect the statistics. Such deficiencies in reporting may vary between trades.

Tables 8 to 11 show some statistics for small enterprises of different sizes from the ISA-statistics.

Table 8. Number of fatal accidents during the years 1995 to 1998 broken down by size of establishment (not always equal to size of enterprise) as reported by ISA (Statistics Sweden 1999 and Statistics compiled by ISA, Swedish Work Environment Authority).

No inform on size

0 empl. 1-9 empl.

10-19 empl.

20-49 empl.

50-199 empl.

> 200 empl.

Total

1995 14 18 18 6 14 12 8 90

1996 15 12 16 7 10 12 15 87

1997 12 17 13 5 15 14 13 89

1998 10 10 19 7 8 12 2 68

Total number 1995-1998

51 57 66 25 47 50 38 334

% of total fatal accidents

15 17 20 7 14 15 11

% of all employees

15,6 6,7 5,2 5,5 11,7 55,3

It is notable that enterprises with less than 20 employees have about 44 per cent

(probably more, as the size of the enterprise is not known in 15 per cent of the

cases) of the fatal accidents but only 27 per cent of the employees. This fact is

mainly due to the small group of enterprises with 1-9 employees that have 6,7 per

cent of employees but 20 per cent of the accidents. As shown in table 9 most acci-

dents within these enterprises occur within agriculture, construction and transport.

Table 9. Number of fatal accidents during the years 1995–1998 in enterprises with 1-9 employees related to sector as reported by ISA (Statistics Sweden 1999 and Statistics compiled by ISA, Swedish Work Environment Authority).

Trade Number of fatal accidents 95-98

Agriculture, hunting, forestry and related service activities 15

Construction 12

Land and air transport 10

Manufactured metal production except machinery and equipment 5

Other business activities 5

Sale, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles 4 Other trades with less than 3 fatal accidents during 1995-1998 17

Total number 1995-1998 66

Table 10. Frequency of accidents per 1000 employees during the years 1996 and 1998 related to size of establishment as reported to ISA (Statistics Sweden 1999 and Statistics compiled by ISA, Swedish Work Environment Authority ).

1-4 empl. 5-49 empl. > 50 empl.

1996 4,9 8,1 9,8

1998 4,0 8,0 9,5

Table 11. Frequency of work related diseases per 1000 employees during the years 1996 and 1998, related to size of establishment as reported by ISA (Statistics Sweden 1999 and Statistics compiled by ISA, Swedish Work Environment Authority).

1-4 empl. 5-49 empl. > 50 empl.

1996 1,9 2,9 3,6

1998 1,7 3,9 5,0

The information in tables 10 and 11 is not easy to understand when compared with the figures for fatal accidents. There seems to be a major underestimate of accidents and diseases within small enterprises, at least if it is presumed that there is some kind of relationship between fatalities and accidents.

There is scarce information about sick leave in general related to size of enter- prise. The information available concerns workers (not salaried employees) in the private sector, see table 12.

Table 12. Sick leave in per cent of working time among workers in the private sector, broken down by size. Size relates to establishment (not enterprise) (personal communi- cation with Lennart Jonsson, Swedish Employers Federation, jan 2000).

Year Size of establishment

1-5 6-10 11-25 26-50 51-100 101-200 201-500 501-1000 >1000

1989 8.4 7.6 7.5 9.2 10.9 12.2 12.4 12.8 12.7

1998 5.18 5.62 4.86 5.25 5.73 5.56 6.08 6.56 5.92

In the smallest enterprises absence due to sickness increased markedly between

1997 and 1998. This is supposed to be connected to the reduction in the time for

which the employer has to pay a salary, which was changed from four weeks to

two weeks on April 1 1998 (personal communication with Lennart Jonsson,

Swedish Employers Federation, Jan 2000).

2.4 Cost of injuries, ill-health and absence

The costs of injuries, ill-health and absence are related to the incidence of work- related accidents and diseases as well as to illnesses in general which are not due to work. In the Swedish statistics it is hardly possible to evaluate which parts of these costs are work-related. During the last year a project has started aimed at developing methods for such economic evaluations, based on a preliminary study (Vinberg & Malmquist 1998).

There is an insurance within the private sector, which covers loss of income exceeding what is paid for by the Social Insurance Office, for work-related acci- dents and diseases. The insurance is administered by AMF Insurance (AMF Försäkring). Information on the total cost per year to cover loss of income is not available (confidential data). No information is available on costs for enterprises broken down by size (wage sum per insurance number, which often is equivalent to wage sum per enterprise).

In one programme, projects were initiated in enterprises and partly supported by the Working Life Fund. All enterprises receiving grants for specific projects had to write a report about the results in their projects. In their reports economic calcu- lations of the economic effects on the enterprises had to be included. These calcu- lations were based on a method presented by the Fund and included calculating the costs for sick leave. However, when sick leave before and after the projects was compared, sick leave at the peak of good national economy (end of 1980s) was compared to sick leave during a deep recession (beginning and middle of 1990s). Thus the effects of the projects were difficult to evaluate independently of the effects from changes in the national economy and labour market.

2.5 Other measures of health and safety

Statistics Sweden regularly measures different factors relating to working life through enquiries. Three different kinds of enquiries are made regularly.

AKU-surveys are made every month and are sent to approximately 17 000 persons covering different aspects of employment, work, absence from work and unemployment.

Working environment surveys are made every other year and were last pub- lished for 1997. They are directed towards some of the people within the AKU- study. This survey covers the physical and psycho-social aspects of working life.

Work-related pain and difficulties are surveyed once a year. This survey is included in the AKU-study.

None of the results of these studies have thus far been related to size of enter- prise. However, this question has been discussed and it seems to be possible to relate the results to size, by using other databases in connection with these sur- veys. There are discussions going on regarding this, but no decisions have yet been taken.

The Swedish Trade Union Confederation makes surveys regularly regarding the

working environment. In their surveys among safety representatives and employ-

ees in different sectors, the number of employees is surveyed as well. This means

there is information available that could be used to study different aspects of the

working environment in relation to size of enterprise. Thus far, however, the surveys have not been used to investigate this aspect (LO 1996a, b, 1997).

2.6 Small enterprises opinions about their health and safety

In two Swedish studies, employers and employees in small enterprises have been asked what they think about their own working environment. Not surprisingly, the majority of small Swedish enterprises find their own working environment better than average in their trade. In a study from 1989, ten of 22 employers found their own working environment better than average in their trade, ten thought it was about average and two did not know. The safety delegates opinions were a bit different but the tendency was similar. Five thought the working environment was better, two about average, two worse and six did not have an opinion (Antonsson et al. 1989). Thus, both employers and safety delegates seem to overestimate their own working environment, even though many safety delegates in small enter- prises have not got an opinion, probably due to lack of experience from other enterprises. In a study from 1998, 22 of 30 employers found their own working environment better than average in their trade and six about average. One did not know and one thought the physical working environment was worse than in large enterprises in the same trade but that the psycho-social working environment was better (Antonsson et al. 1998).

2.7 Health and safety information and training in small enterprises

In general, information and training is not solely directed towards only large or small enterprises, but rather towards enterprises in sectors. It is difficult to get hold of data that describe small enterprise participation in information and edu- cation activities. However, it is not too much to say that small enterprises are under-represented in such activities in relation to their share of the employees.

2.8 Information sources used by small enterprises

Employers have several different sources for their information regarding the working environment, the most important ones are:

• Regional Safety Representatives, who might visit the enterprise once a year or once every two years.

• Occupational health services, if the enterprise is attached to one.

• Newspapers published by an employers’ organisation and sectoral organisa- tions.

• Employers’ organisations, where there usually is at least one person respon- sible for working environment issues and serving as an adviser to member enterprises.

• Business network with colleagues in the same sector, neighbours and other

business contacts.

• Suppliers as customers from which small enterprises purchase whatever is needed for their production. Products are sometimes marketed as better to work with and better for the working environment.

Depending on trade and enterprise, the importance of these information sources will vary.

Employees in small enterprises get most of their information through a few channels:

• The trade union’s regular newspaper, which is often published monthly.

• The regional safety representative, when they visit the enterprise.

• Daily newspapers.

• Occupational health services, if the enterprise is attached to one.

The different channels are all sustainable in the sense that they exist over a long period of time and can be used for providing information to small enterprises. For some of these channels, the working environment is in focus, for others a topic they may touch on occasionally. Taken together these channels provide a good basis for sustainable interventions. How successful these will be depends on how much time there is available to work with small enterprises.

To obtain sustainable interventions, the mere existence of a channel is not

enough. The result will probably, to quite a large extent, depend on the means and

methods, which are used to intervene in enterprises. As this is a complex process

depending on many different factors, it will not be discussed further in this con-

text. Additionally, there is a scarcity of research on this topic within Sweden.

3. Strategies on health and safety in small enterprises

3.1 Public strategies

Different actors have different ways of dealing with small enterprises and their working environment. From a national perspective, the main actors are:

• The government and especially the Ministry of Labour (currently included in the Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communications).

• The parties on the labour market, employers and employees organisations.

• The agencies, mainly the Swedish Work Environment Authority and the regional Work Environment Inspectorate.

• The occupational health services.

These main actors have started several programs and activities with a focus on small enterprises or programs that are especially important to small enterprises, even if they may cover large enterprises as well. Such programs are:

• Arbetslivsfonden, ALF, (the Work Life Fund) was built up from a so called working environment fee, which was paid as an extra tax on the wage sum by all employers between September 1989 and December 1990. ALF existed for some years and initiated and financed improvements in the working environ- ment in many enterprises, not only small ones. (Not to be confused with the Swedish Council for Work Life Research, which mainly finances research and development.) Many small enterprises got financial support from ALF to im- prove their organisation of work as well as the physical working environment.

The Swedish Work Environment Authority will give priority to small enterprises during the year 2000. During recent years there has been a focus on systematic work environment management in small enterprises. Inspections have been directed towards specific sectors containing many small enterprises with high risks.

For the years to come, the Board has the following plans concerning small enterprises:

“Small enterprises especially within mechanical workshops and the transport and building sectors, shall improve their awareness of risks, their knowledge of the regulations concerning the working environment and increase and improve their precautionary work.

Tangible goals are

• The Work Environment Inspectorate shall focus their inspections on small enterprises in the sectors mentioned above and control risk awareness, know- ledge and precautionary work.

• The Swedish Work Environment Authority shall develop methods for infor-

mation that motivates enterprises within the sectors mentioned above to